Concert review: Run the Jewels & Joey Bada$$, The Studio

Run The Jewels at Auckland's Laneway Festival in early 2014. Photo/Sarah Ivey

If you think it's hot outside at the moment, wait until you step into The Studio's disgusting sauna stew.

Led by the incendiary antics of two rap acts at the top of their game, the small rectangular room on Auckland's K' Rd last night turned into a sweltering sweatbox that had punters gasping for air, desperately grabbing bottles of free water and pleading for motionless fans bolted to the walls to be turned on.

If you were looking to lose a few Christmas kilos alongside a bunch of strangers with personal space issues, it was the perfect scenario - especially when zeitgeist-grabbing American duo Run the Jewels took the stage.

Thanks to the brotherly antics of Killer Mike and El-P, Run the Jewels released one of 2014's best albums, and the last show of their tour in support of it felt like a victory lap, with every song receiving a celebratory reaction that had friends hugging and strangers high-fiving each other.

Their brand of attack rap comes with a Nine Inch Nails-style grind, and there was moshpit mayhem during the clattering drums, bass stabs and sloganeering of Blockbuster Night Part 1 and Oh My Darling Don't Cry, and the fuzzy thuds and Zach de la Rocha-sung hooks of Close Your Eyes.

But El-P's production also comes with a dose of future funk: the irony-heavy antics and sluggish lope of Love Again had the commanding Killer Mike shaking his hefty hips across the stage, while El-P delivered gutteral screams over Early's shimmering chorus that came across like LCD Soundsystem on acid.

It's Mike and El-P's interaction that really stands out, the pair often performing arm-in-arm, dusting each other off and trading verses with mile-wide smiles. And it sure is fun shouting out the ridiculous choruses of Lie, Cheat, Steal and DDFH at the top of your lungs in a room full of Run the Jewels fans. It was almost enough to make you forget about the perspiration - probably not yours - dripping down your back.

Despite the night's odd running order, the venue didn't cool down for the youthful exuberance of Joey Bada$$, the 19-year-old Brooklyn native who caused a storm with his 2012 mixtape Summer Knights but has so far failed to live up to that early hype.

That's about to change, if the reaction to Bada$$'s new material is anything to go by. Due out on January 20, he played plenty of promising material from his second album B4.Da.$$, including the brilliant bass lope of No. 99, the druggy swagger of Big Dusty and Like Me with a beat provided by the estate of late producer J Dilla.

They're songs that combine the old school aesthetics and summery production of groups like A Tribe Called Quest with Bada$$'s hard edged rhymes that see him flying around the stage and performing like a one-man Wu-Tang Clan. Yes, his unpredictable nature can see him living up to his name at times - Bada$$ was arrested in Australia after a show recently over an incident with a security guard that's seen him charged with assault.

But he's an electric performer, especially on 1999's best songs, like Hardknock's tuned-down storytelling, Waves' jazzy interlude and World Domination's comical hooks. During feisty closer Survival Tactics, he organised a circle pit then jumped into the crowd while impressively staying on his feet to perform. It was one final sweat-drenched punctuation point on a night full of them.

* What did you think of the show? Post your comments below.

Run the Jewels & Joey Bada$$
Where: The Studio, Auckland
When: Saturday, January 10

- nzherald.co.nz